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THE POLITICAL CRISIS-THE DANGER AND THE REMEDY. 



SPEECH 

OP 

HON. WILLIAM H. ENGLISH, 



,*/■ 



r; 



OF INDIANA, 



IN THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 2, 1860 



The House being In the Committee of the Whole on the 
state of the Union — 

Mr. ENGLISH said: 

Mr. Chairman: If I were to speak upon the 
topics which seem to be absorbing the attention of 
everybody just now, it would be upon the scenes 
that have been enacted and the events which are' 
transpiring at Charleston. 

I may be permitted to say, sir, upon this sub- 
ject of the Presidency, that I have but little sympa- 
thy with those who imperiously demand " Caesar 
or nobody," no sympathy with that rule-or-ruin 
spirit which has been exhibited too much of late 
in both wings of the Democratic party, and to 
which may justly be attributed whatever difficul- 
ties new exist. 

I shall not attempt, sir, on the present occasion, 
to characterize this rulc-or-ruin spirit in that lan- 
guage I conceive it so justly merits; but I venture 
to*predict that if disaster or serious trouble en- 
sues, the masses of the Democrat* party never 
will forgive, as they never ought to forgive, those 
who will have needlessly precipitated this state of 
affairs upon the country. 

It is not to be denied that,justatthis time, dark 
and ominous clouds seem to be " lowering over 
our house," but I have an abiding faith that these 
clouds will soon break away, and leave the glori- 
ous sun of Democracy shining brightly as ever. 
Sir, mere political storms have no terror for mc, 
or for the great party to which I belong; and, for 
the present, I shall go upon the supposition that 
whatever storms may have prevailed at Charles- 
ton were necessary for the purity and hcalthful- 
nessof the political atmosphere, as natural storms 
arc known to be for a like purpose in the physical 
world. 

At all events, when the time for action arrives, 
I doubt not every Democrat will be ready to do 
his duty, according to the circumstances which 
may surround him. I shall certainly endeavor to do 
mine. Even those Democrats who may think our 
best man has not been selected for the Presidency 
will still have the consolation of knowing that he 
is better than the best one the Republicans are 



likely to present us, and that any Democratic 
platform is infinitely preferable to theirs. 

Besides, on the great all-important point, there 
can be no division in our ranks ; and that is, earnest 
and unceasing opposition to the principles and 
policy of the Republican party. There we stand 
as a unit, and there we must continue to stand, 
" one and indivisible, now and forever." 

We may have family differences about other 
matters of minor importance, but that is our own 
business, and will be regulated and disposed of 
in our own way, and, I shall continue to hope, in 
a way conducive to harmony and success. 

But, Mr. Chairman, my purpose to-day is to 
speak more particularly upon the "irrepressible- 
conflict" and negro-equality doctrines of the Re- 
publican party; and, as I consider the measure 
of opposition to these doctrines to be full on this 
side of the House, and that on the other sidegen- 
Uemen are "joined to their idols," like Ephraim 
of old, and to be let alone, what I shall say will 
be mainly intended for the country — for the hon- 
est masses of the American people. This being 
the case, I prefer not to have interruptions in- 
jected into my speech. I hope not to misrepre- 
sent any; but if I should happen to do so, I will 
cheerfully give way, before I resume my scat, to 
have it corrected. 

I know, sir, there is a disposition on the part 
of some persons to underrate the importance of 
the present crisis, and to ridicule the idea that 
anything disastrous to the country is likely to re- 
sult from it. Those who do this are generally 
guilty themselves of producing the agitation in 
which the country is unhappily involved, and 
seem to care for nothing so much as the accom- 
plishment of mere partisan ends. 

I trust the great mass of the people, who are 
chiefly engaged in the peaceful avocations of pri- 
vate life, and whose attention has not been partic- 
ularly directed to public affairs, will not allow 
themselves to be lulled into a false feeling of se- 
curity. I would appeal to my constituents not to 
judge of the temper of the nation by what they 
see around them; for Indiana is a conservative 






State, and free from the extreme views which un- 
fortunately exist in ether portions of the Con- 
federacy. I would have them know that it is the 
opinion of many of their oldest and wisest states- 
men — those who have been looked up to hereto- 
fore as possessing the coolest heads and soundest 
hearts — that the signs of the times forebode greater 
danger to the country than at any previous period 
of its history. Sectional jealousies, difficulties, 
and perplexities surroundit on every side; fanat- 
icism and ultraism are the order of the day, whilst 
treason and rebellion stalk boldly through the 
land. And why is it so? Is it not because we 
have forgotten the teachings -of the fathers of the 
Republic, and disregarded the farewell advice of 
the great Washington? Is it not because we have 
allowed a formidable party to grow up in our 
midst, based upon purely sectional ideas, and con- 
stantly tending to excite the hostility of the peo- 
ple of the North against the people of the South, 
and their institutions? My judgment answers in 
the affirmative, and 1 believe the peace and pros- 
perity of the country demand that this sectional 
party should be put down. Yea, the very per- 
petuity of our institutions demands it, for if these 
sectional clashings are allowed to go on, unre- 
bukedby the people, it requires no gift of proph- 
ecy to determine what will be the final result. We 
may temporize, and put off the evil day for a sea- 
son, but the terrible explosion will come, sooner 
or later, if this fell spirit of sectional strife con- 
tinues. 

To avert so dire a calamity, we should not only 
defeat, but annihilate this Republican party; a 
party which lives, and breathes, and has its being 
in the agitation of the slavery question, and could 
not exist a day without it. When that is done, 
and not before, we may expect harmony and good 
feeling to be restored between the two sections, 
and the country to have peace. 

The ties that bind our nation together must be 
those, of mutual interest, respect, and affection. 
This Union cannot be held together by force; and 
if so held, would cease to be desirable. In some 
respects it is like the union of husband and wife; 
and what would that most sacred of all human 
relations be, if the parties were only kept together 
by the compulsion of law, and not by the ties of 
mutual respect and affection? So it is with our 
Government. It is not for armies and navies to 

f>rotect it from ourselves. It must rest upon the 
ove and forbearance of the people; and when 
these cease, though it may exist for awhile, must 
we not expect it to languish, and ultimately 
perish? 

This way of getting up periodical sectional ex- 
citements, at the instigation of crazy fanatics and 
unscrupulous demagogues, hungry and wild in 
the pursuit of office and political power; this way 
of experimenting to see how near the country can 
be brought to the precipice of disunion without 
going over, will, if persisted in, prove disastrous 
in the end. 

The whirlwind is the harvest ever due those 
who sow the wind; and, I repeat, if this sectional 
hostility goes on, increasing in bitterness and 
intensity, as it certainly will if not promptly 
and thoroughly crushed out by the people, the 
historian probably now lives whose melancholy 
duty it will be to record the downfall of the great 
American Republic. These gloomy forebodings, 



I trust in God, will never be realized; but still 
every reflecting and unprejudiced man feels, in 
his heart, that they are not wholly without founda- 
tion. 

Sir, if our Government is worth preserving, it is 
worth taking pains to preserve. The eyes of the 
whole civilized world are turned to it as the last 
great effort of man to govern himself. Its failure 
would blast the hopes of the lovers of liberal in- 
stitutions everywhere, and I feel would be the 
greatest calamity that could possibly be visited 
upon my countrymen. Living upon the borders 
of a border State, my constituents would be 
amongst the first to suffer, should hostilities un- 
fortunately occur between the two sections. 

As to a peaceful dissolution of the Union, or 

the maintenance of peace within the Union, with 

the guarantees of the Constitution flagrantly 

violated by this sectional party, that would be 

entirely out of the question. The American is 

essentially a restless, resentful, and belligerent 

race; and if the dreadful event of actual collision 

between the two sections should ever occur — 

which God forbid ! — it will be followed by a war 

as bloody and relentless as was ever recorded 

in the annals of time ! Good men and patriots 

everywhere should consider, in time, what ought 

I to be done to protect the rights of every section, 

I and to restore and maintain friendship and har- 

; mony. Washington told us to frown upon the 

I first dawning of any attempt to excite sectional an- 

: imosities; and had his warning voice been heeded, 

i there would have been no Republican party now, 

and none of the dangers which surround us. Blot 

! out that party, and abide in good faith by the 

i letter and spirit of the Constitution as our fathers 

I made it, and, my word for it, the country will go 

on in prosperity and peace. In my opinion, all 

the trouble may fairly be attributed" to the exist- 

| ence of that party. It is purely a sectional, one- 

• idea party, and that one idea is the negro !- Take 

! away that, and the party ceases to live. It has 

I been well said of some members of that party, 

I that they have " taken the negro to their bosoms 

I and lodged him in their hearts, till they know 

j him from the sole of his splay foot to the top- 

1 knot of his woolly head, and they have imbued 

I their minds and souls with the very quintessence 

of negroism. And they do not know anything 

| else ! Take them off from the subject of Hegro, 

and they are know nothings. Separate them from 

j Sambo and Cuffee, and they are as helpless -as 

the babes in the woods." A party composed of 

| such men could hardly fail to irritate and make 

mischief. 

There are two classes engaged in getting up 
and keeping up this slavery agitation. One : class 
is composed of those who are conscientious, and 
act from principle alone; and although I feel sure 
that their opinions are colored from looking only 
upon one side of the picture, and consequently 
are often unfounded and dangerous, still I can, 
and do, respect them; but there is another aad 
much larger class, who seize hold of this ques- 
tion and appeal to the passions and prejudices of 
the northern people, for the sake of getting into 
office or accomplishing mere party ends, and not 
from conscientious convictions upon the subject 
of slavery, and this class, I conceive, arc entitled 
to but little, if any, respect. I am sorry to have 
j to say that I believe there are thousands now act- 



ingwith the Republicans for the reason they have 
not patriotism enough in their hearts, or manliness 
in their nature, to lift themselves above their old 
prejudice and hatred of the Democratic party, and 
not because they have any particular love for the 
Republican doctrines. 

1 do not wish to deal unfairly with the mem- 
bers of that party; and I freely admit that a vast 
number of them, and especially in my own re- 
gion of country, arc looking to political success 
alone, and do not intend to aid in pushing this 
sectional agitation to such an extreme as to en- 
danger the Union or violate the constitutional 
rights of the South; but they will generally stick 
to their party for all that; and, as revolutions 
never go backward, if that party should get into 

{lower, the boldest and most ultra will get the 
ead, and the rest, withjmit few exceptions, will 
gradually, but certainly, follow. That is the his- 
tory, sir, of all such movements. Wilbcrforceand 
the other British slavery agitators set out with 
vehement assurances that their object was not to 
abolish slavery where it then existed in the Brit- 
ish islands, but only to prevent its further exten- 
sion and to suppress the slave trade, and yet it 
ended in total, and, as it has turned out, ruinous 
emancipation. Upon this subject see the article 
from the London Times, in the appendix to this 
speech, (E.) 

Sectional fanaticism is a growing evil, and like 
the cancer in the human body, spreads until it 
destroys the vitality of the whole system. I can 
call to mind many persons who set out with mod- 
erate anti-slavery views, who are now ardent ad- 
vocates of abolition sentiments. The influence 
and principles that could command but a handful 
of votes for Birney in 1844, now control, to a great 
extent, the destinies of the Republican party. 
The approach of fanaticism is always insidious. 
Extreme views arc kept in the background, and 
onlv the most plausible presented in the beginning 
The wedge must first gain an entrance before it 
can be driven home. The demand will advance 
as the movement gatliers strength, until at last 
fanaticism will reign supreme. The ultra Aboli- 
tionists understand this, and they are perfectly 
satisfied that the complete ultimate triumph of 
their views would result from the success of the 
Republican party. No one understands this bet- 
ter than the great leader of the ultra Abolitionists, 
Wend.ell Phillips himself As long ago as the last 
presidential canvass, he said the Republican party 
" is the first sectional party ever organized in tliis 
country. It does not know Us own face, and it calls 
itself national; but it is not national — it is settional. 
It is the North arrayed against the South}." And 
Wendell Phillips was riglat. If this Republican 
party sets up any pretense to nationality, " it does 
not know its own face." It thinks it has got a white 
face; out it is a mistake. There is no nationality 
about it. There are, undoubtedly, various shades 
of sentiment in the party; but whether caljed Abo- 
litionism, Free Soilism, Republicanism, or what 
you will, it is all based upon the idea that slavery 
is.sinful;^hat the negro is the equal of the white 
man, and ought to be clothed with the rights and 
immunities of citizenship; and hence that iliere is 
an " irrepressible conflict" between free and slave 
States, which must go on until all become slave or 
all free. (SeeSoward's Rochester speech and Lin- 
coln 's speech at Freeport.) This idea is now the 



corner-stone of Republican faith, the starting-point 
of all their theories. Negro equality is the neces- 
sary, logical, and inevitable sequence of their prin- 
ciples. I do not mean to say that it is everywhere 
proclaimed in their platforms or emblazoned upon 
their banners; but the whole tendency of the prin- 
ciples and acts of that party is to that result. Re- 
publicans believe their " irrepressible conflict" 
must go on until all the Suites become slave or all 
free, and, of course, they arc for the latter. Why 
all free ? Is it not because they think that the necro 
slave is deprived of free and equal rights which 
ought to be restored to him? Is it not to clothe 
him with those rights, and to elevate and equalize 
him with the white race? Their doctrines mean 
that, or they mean nothing. The conduct of that 
party, wherever it is firmly established in power, 
shows that to be its grand end and aim. 

I admit that a portion of the party at the West, 
and perhaps elsewhere, shrink from this idea of 
negro equality; but they will come to it after a 
while, if they remain members of the party. It is 
a sickening dose to many Republicans in my own 
State; but sickening and disgustingas it may be, 
they will have to swallow it, or join a sounder and 
more healthful political organization. I will not 
say, in the language of their party's favorite au- 
thor, (Helper,) that they are not "full and per- 
fectly developed frogs," but only " tadpoles in 
the advanced state of transformation;" but I will 
say they too often figure as the mere tail to the 
Republican kite — the tender of the Abolition loco- 
motive — for without being the motive or control- 
ling power of the concern, they tamely follow 
wherever it chooses. It is of the action of the 
party as a whole I propose to speak; and it is 
my purpose to show, as far as I can, their true 
position in each of the States on this subject of 
negro equality; which term I, of course, use in 
its political sense. I have taken some pains to 
procure correct information on the subject; and 
without pretending to entire accuracy, I think I 
may safely claim to be so in all essential respects. 
I believe an impartial examination of the theory 
of Republican principles, the declarations of Re- • 
publican leaders, the acts of Republican legislators, 
and the stalus'ol' the negro in all the Republican 
States, will satisfy any one that negro equality is 
a leading characteristic of that party, if not the 
very quintessence of its creed. 

I have already alluded to what I conceive to be 
a just interpretation of the theory upon which the 
organization rests; and I might produce numerous 
instances where its leaders have denied the natural 
superiority of the whit' 1 man over the black, and 
have expressed sentiments in favor of bringing 
negroes and white people to the same political 
level. The whole country are familiar with the 
refusal of Governor Hanks, when the Republican 
candidate for Speaker, to say he considered the 
white man superior to the negro. He considered 
whichever was the superior rare would in time absorb 
the other, (by amalgamation, of course,) and he 
left it to time'to determine. And the whole Repub- 
lican party in Congress indorsed these sentiments 
by voting for him lor Speaker (For his remarks, 
and the vote, see Congressional Globe, page 327, 
first session Thirty-Fourth Congress.) Mr. Sxw- 
ard, who is the admitted head of the party, has 
never concealed his sentiments; and we have the 
evidence of an honorable member upon this floor, 



[Governor Smith, of Virginia,] that Mr. Seward 
said to him, in presence of several gentlemen, that 
he (Seward) was in favor of allowing free negro 
suffrage in New York; and on Governor Smith 
remarking that New York would be a good place 
for Virginia to ship her free negroes to, Mr. Sew- 
ard said: " We will receive them with great pleas- 
ure; we have a great deal of difficulty with the Ger- 
man and Irish voters in times of election; we have to 
raise a great deal of money to secure their votes; the 
rascals take our money, and then vote against us; 
but we have no such trouble with the colored men-" 
The whole of this remarkable conversation will be 
found on pages 238 and 239 of the Congressional 
Globe of the present session. (See appendix A.) 
But there is nothing in it at all inconsistent with 
the theory of the principles of Mr. Seward and 
his party, or even with their acts. The same dis- 
position to elevate the negro above the white man 
of foreign birth is exhibited in the acts of the 
Republicans of Massachusetts and elsewhere, 
and by the repeated declarations of members of 
that party, as I shall proceed to show. 

The statement of Governor Smith that Mr. 
Seward manifested a willingness to exchange the 
Dutch and Irish of New York for the free negroes 
of Virginia, is corroborated by the following ex- 
tract from Helper's book, which Mr. Seward 
Unqualifiedly indorsed, and " every sentence of 
which," Mr. Giddings says, "finds a response in 
the hearts of all true Republicans." " We can well 
afford to dispense with the ignorant Catholic cle- 
ment of the Emerald Isle. In the influences which 
they exert on society, there is so little difference 
between slavery, Popery, and negro-driving De- 
mocracy, that we are not at all surprised to see 
them going hand in hand in their diabolical work 
of inhumanity and desolation." (Page 83.) 

It will not be forgotten that a compendium of 
the book from which this abusive fling at the Irish 
was taken, received the written indorsement of 
sixty-eight Republican members of Congress, 
whose names will be found on the 196th page of 
the Congressional Globe for the present session. 

This sentiment of extravagant love for the negro 
and hatred of the white foreigner, which has been 
found chiefly heretofore in the eastern States, 
where Republicanism has been the most firmly 
planted, is beginning to take root even in the 
West. I find in a western paper the following par- 
agraph , attributed to the Cleveland (Ohio) Herald , 
a leading Republican paper: 

" We unhesitatingly aver that seven tenths of the 
foreigners in our land, who boic in obedience to the 
will of the Pope of Rome, are not as intelligent as 
the full-blooded Africans of our State; we will not 
include the part bloods." 

I alsp find in the newspapers a statement that 
some time ago a Black Republican preacher by 
the name of Tucker, in Johnson county, Indiana, 
used the following language in an oration before 
Sabbath-school children, from the pulpit. Hear 
him: 

"And now, girls, when you get to be about 
sixteen years of age* and begin to wear combs in 
your hair, you will think of marrying. Let my 
advice be to you all in making a selection of a hus- 
band, to rather choose a negro than a white man ivlw 
drinks whisky." 

It seems by this that, whilst some Republicans 
think more of negroes than white foreigners, oth- 



ers think more of them than of any white man 
who drinks whisky. How long will it be be- 
fore some crazy abolition fanatic sets up a claim 
for the superiority of the negro over the white 
race generally? How long will it be, if these 
fanatics obtain the power, before negroes are ele- 
vated to high official positions in the Govern- 
ment? How long will it be before Hon. Pom- 
pey Smash, Fred Douglass, or some other kinky- 
headed and thick-lipped darkey presents himself 
here, all redolent with the peculiar odor of his 
race, to claim a seat as one of the people's rep- 
resentatives? "When we reflect upon the state 
of public sentiment in some portions of the Uni- 
ted States, such a contingency may not be so 
improbable or remote as gentlemen may sup- 
pose. What is to prevent it, if the negro is to 
oe held a citizen, possessing equal rights with 
the white man? If Mr. Seward is elected Pres- 
ident, is it not likely he would prefer appointing 
a negro to office rather than one of those "ras- 
cals" he speaks of, (German and Irish voters,) 
who " take our money and then vote against us?" 
More than once have intimations been thrown 
out by Republican leaders of a willingness to 
support negroes for high office. 

Mr. Charles C. Van Zant, late Speaker of the 
Rhode Island House of Representatives, and a 
prominent Black Republican leader in that State, 
in the Republican State convention held in Prov- 
idence recently, was a candidate for the nomina- 
tion for Attorney General. He made a speech, 
which we find reported in the Providence Even- 
ing Press, in which he expressed a " willingness to 
support Fred Douglass for the next President, if he 
should succeed in getting the Republican nomina- 
tion." 

When the celebrated Abolitionist Gerrit Smith 
resigned his seat in the Thirty-Third Congress, 
the New York Tribune noticed the fact in the fol- 
lowing significant and insulting language: 

"Gerrit Smith has resigned his seat in Con- 
gress, to take effect at the close of the present ses- 
sion. We regret this withdrawal. Mr. Smith is 
preeminently a patriot, a Christian, and a philan- 
thropist; and men of that stamp are too scarce in 
either House. Then he is an ultra Abolitionist — 
one who believes slavery never teas, because it never 
could be, constitutional or legal anywhere, and that 
every slave has a perfect moral right to assert andsccure 
his freedom by any means that will be effective. The 
Southrons needed a sight of the genuine article. 
They have had it, and will sleep easier and have 
truer notions of northern peculiarities hereafter. 
But for Mr. Smith's election, they might have 
squirmed a little when Fred Douglass came to pre- 
sent his credentials and hang up his hat as a member; 
while, after this specimen of our ultras, we have 
high hopes that they will take the next dose pla- 
cidly, like philosophers and gentlemen." 

That the election of Douglass, or some other 
negro, was not improbable in a district that had 
elected a crazy fanatic, with such sentiments as 
this extract attributes to Mr. Smith, was an opin- 
ion quite natural, and no doubt entertained by 
more than the New York Tribune; and there are 
those now here who may live to see it realized. 
This same New York Tribune, which is the Re- 
publican Bible, of the 17th of March last, says: 

" We were visited a few days since, by a Vir- 
ginian—Mr. Oscar Carey, of Loudoun county. 



He was as black as the ace of spades, but a gen- 
tleman in his manners and bearing, as most of the 
negroes and sorne of the white men of that Slate are 
known to be." 

"Most of the negroes," and (< some of the white 



bravest defenders, and then prove their loyalty by 
combining with the Abolitionists against the ex- 
ecution of all laws which they do not approve. 
The Abolition party has pursued an undeviating 
course for a period of more than twenty-five years; 
while the Republican has not continued of the 



But I find, sir, that the limits of my speech will j! same character as many days. The Abolitionists 



not admit of the introduction of all the evidence I 
have collected upon this branch of the subject. I 
have much more of the same sort, which I may 
produce on some other occasion. I have only '■ 
time now to submit the following pithy extract 



boldly raise their flag, displaying its repulsive 
motto — 'JVb union with Slaveholders;' while the 
Republicans confidentially salute it with a broth- 
erly recognition, boast that they want no flag of 
the'ir own, and then proclaim undying love for the 



which I find attributed to a Republican paper in 1 South, and unalterable attachment to the Union. 



Illinois. Here it is: 

"Republicanism Boldly Proclaimed. — The 

Freeport (Illinois) Journal of a recent date, comes 
out flat-footed, and proclaims the doctrine of the I 
Republican party thus: 



The Abolition party generates and carries its own 
thunder, while the Republicans draw upon it as 
they think they have occasion, and not un fre- 
quently borrow more than they want, or more 
I than they can manage, and covertly hasten' to 
The terrific bolt at Har- 



> believe the negro is human; he has a | suppress or return it. The 
has an intellect; and in so far as the right . per's Ferry was of their own 



; We 
soul; he has an intellect fand in so far as the right ,j per's Ferry was of their own manufacture. 
of suffrage or any other right of citizenship is con- , | rison is a non-resistant, and does not deal in pikes 
cerned, he should be placed on an equality wilh the j and powder. At Rochester, Seward relied on 



rest of mankind. We further believe that the negro 
is superior, in all the requirements necessary for cili- j 
zenship, to a majority of the Irish " cattle " who dis- ; 
grace our soil.' " I 

These declarations, from the lips and pens of 
prominent Republicans,! considerconsistcnt with 
the principles upon which the party is founded; ; 
but not more consistent than their acts will be j 
found to be with their declarations. And now let 
us examine their acts. 

If you want to find what pure and unadulter- 
ated Republicanism is, look into those States where 
that party have unlimited control. This investi- 

fation I have attempted to make. To that end 
addressed letters to intelligent and responsible 
gentlemen in each of these States, soliciting defi- 
nite and reliable information upon the subject. I 
regret the limits of my speech will not permit me 
to submit the replies in full; but here is one, writ- 
ten with such ability and spirit, that I cannot re- 
sist the temptation to read it, premising that the 
writer is one of the soundest and purest statesmen 
of New England, and merits the high position he 
occupies in his party and before the country. He 
says: 

"With a view to comprehensive brevity, permit 
me to meet your several inquiries, by first refer- 
ring to the conjectural platform of the Republican 
party. It is constantly to be borne in mind that 
the Republican party has no standard of principle, 
except that which is to be found in the Abolition 
party — a party which is bold and uncompromising 
in its deliberately-chosen positions and declara- 
tions, and which adheres to its plans and promul- 
gates its dogmas and purposes in utter contempt 
of all constitutional authority not in harmony ^ 
with its own platform. Its distinctions are plainly 
fundamental, while those of the Republican party 
are as clearly factitious, and made conformable to 
the current delusions of the day. The Abolition 
party boldly denounces the United States Consti- 
tution as 'a covenant with death — an agreement 
with hell;' while the Republicans professedly 
honor it, and yet constantly favor legislation that 
contravenes its own requisitions. The Abolition- 
ists would regard it a privilege and a public bless- 
ing to be able to subvert and flestroy the Gov- 
ernment, aa at present organized; while the Re- i 
publicans claim to be its greatest admirers and ' 



borrowed capital ;but since his return from Europe, 
he demands unlimited credit, with all his old debts 
upon him, and without an indorser. The Aboli- 
tion party always leads with a startling boldness, 
and the Republicans timidly follow, only that 
they may gain the lead and save the game. Garri- 
son is the unsleeping book-keeper of both parties, 
and if any desire to know his method of keeping 
accounts they have only to read his speech, de- 
livered before the Massachusetts legislative com- 
mittee on Federal relations, February 24, 1859. 
He admits a credit, only that he may make an 
additional charge. His content is only in a new 
demand. 

" On the common ground of unconditional equal- 
ity, both Molilionisls and Republicans agree, and 
their shouts for freedom are thought to be in glorious 
harmony. They claim a leveler's equaiity; where 
differences are not counted, at least, not till after 
the election. They claim a civil position for the 
negro, becau*; they feel sure that they can control 
his vote. They are shocked at any avowal of so- 
cial distinction between the two races. They are 
ready to hail him as a fellow-soldier, and to place 
him upon the voting list in advance of honest and 
industrious white men of foreign birth. 

"On this common ground the two parties act 
with unrestrained impulse and freedom, ignoring 
the light of knowledge and experience, demand- 
ing, perhaps, what all would rejoice to gee, but 
none are' able to accomplish; asking what cannot 
be granted, professing what cannot be practiced, 
and promising what cannot be fulfilled. It is al- 
most a self-evident proposition that equality is a 
condition of power self-sufficient and self-protect- 
ive, panting nothing, needing nothing, and hav- 
ing nothing to spare. It !•> an absurdity, an obvi- 
ous blunder, to assert that two dissimilar races, of 
different origin, of unequal parts and varying ca- 
pacity, can succeed in the s<::nc socii ty when placed in 
competition. .Vosuch example of success can befeimd 
on the page of history; no such disjointed analysis of 
rau.se and effect ran he found upon the records of phi- 
losophy. For more than two hundred years we 
have had the Indian and the negro in con tact with 
the renewing privileges and elevating influences 
of civilization upon the American continent, and 
under that variety of circunistanees, sufficient to 
show the means of success and causes of failure, 



6 



in attempts to elevate and advance them in the 
scale of moral and intellectual growth, they have 
been tested every way, but they have been im- 
proved only in one. The fate of the Indian is no 
longer a subject of doubt; his aboriginal qualities 
fitted him only as a child of the forest, and his race 
is marked for death. The negro has been owned 
and freed undercvery variety of condition and cir- 
cumstance, of labor and of climate, either to mark 
out his own work for himself and enjoy its wages, 
or to follow the directions of men superior in skill 
and judgment, and to participate in their enjoy- 
ments and privileges. In the northern States he 
was told to be free, because he was no profit to his 
owner. His freedom was nominal ; his wretched- 
ness real. (See Historical Sketch of Slavery, by 
Th. R. R. Cobb, p. 201, ch. 15, Ejects of Abolition 
in U. S.) In 1703, Puritan Massachusetts for- 
bade their freedom by law, except on condition 
of security to the town where they belonged. A 
similar law was passed in Connecticut. I know 
of no record that this law has been repealed. In- 
deed, there is no record that slavery has been abol- 
ished by statute either in New Hampshire or Mas- 
sachusetts. At different periods, with doubts and 
difficulty, prospective laws of emancipation were 
passed by Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylva- 
nia, New York, and New Jersey. Vermont ex- 
cluded slavery, by her bill of rights, at an early 
period. As the labor of the negro in the northern 
States proved to be a tax upon his owner, he was 
surrendered to himself, from time to time, riot to 
freedom; and the race has been gradually dying the 
death of imbecility, wretchedness, and degrada- 
tion. (See De Bow's Compendium of Statistics of U. 
S. Census, ch. 4, from page (i2to81.) Inthemcan 
time, the southern States have been pursuing a 
similar course, where the negro has been tested 
as a laborer under conditions of servitude, and 
where the climate, soil, and products, are suited 
to his constitution. Directed and held by the ne- 
cessary conditions of his bonds, as a minor under 
the laws, he lias aided to enrich the country by 
his industry, and to improve his race to a degree 
before unknown. His exemption from the pres- 
sure of physical wants has multiplied opportuni- 
ties for mental improvement, and while he is per- 
mitted to range within the circle of his master's 
freedom and possessions, he shares its comforts 
and becomes the subject of its refinements. 

"All experiments, where the negro has been 
left to himself, have resulted in his degradation 
and death. On the other hand, when he has been 
held as an interest, and directed by a superior 
judgment and protected by considerations of hu- 
manity, he has been vastly improved in his habits 
and character. In a conversation with Rev. Mr. 
Stewart, of Liberia, who has recently visited the 
New England States to study the condition of his 
colored brethren, he assured me. that the negroes of 
the North were much inferior to the slaves of the 
South, and that their most reliable men in Liberia 
had served as slaves in the southern States. They 
were better informed, more industrious, and more 
skillful in planningand managing business of every 
kind. This he accounted for by their more ex- 
tensive and responsible experience as connected 
with the business of their masters. 

" At present, negroes and mulattoesare permit- 
ted to come into Massachusetts without any re- 
striction, and to vote at the elections under the 



laws. The recent and unavailing attempt of the 
Republican party to recognize them as soldiers is 
well known to the country. The number of col- 
ored voters in Boston is nearly four hundred; of 
Worcester, three hundred and sixty; of New Bed- 
ford, three hundred; but of their numbers in other 
places I am not advised. They almost invariably 
vote the Republican ticket. There is no law pro- 
hibiting their holding office, serving on juries, or 
appearing as witnesses in the courts." 

In these respects they stand upon a similar foot- 
ing in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Ver- 
mont, and Rhode Island. Marriages between 
blacks and whites are lawful in all these States 
except Maine and Rhode Island; and negroes do 
occasionally intermarry with white persons. Ne- 
groes are allowed to practice law. A gentleman 
writing me says: " I know of one negro lawyer 
in Boston." Negro children are allowed to attend 
the free schools in common with the white children. 
Garrison boasts that "inBoston, to-day, theblackesl 
chfid sits quietly and honorably by the side of the 
whUest." Colored men may, and I presume do, 
serve on juries. " When the jury list was revised 
the presen t year, "says the Worcester (Massachu- 
setts) Transcript of the 23d of last month, "it was 
intrusted to three aldermen, who reported, among 
other names, those of William H. Jenkins ana 
Francis A. Clough. Both are colored barbers." 
(See Appendix, F.) 

The tendency of the Republican party in New 
York to negro equality is well known. Not satis- 
fied with the large negro vote polled now at every 
election for that party, under the property-quali- 
fication system, the late Republican Legislature 
of that State took the initiatory steps to make 
negro suffrage universal. All who voted for the 
law are Republicans. The vote stood thus in the 
House: for the law, 70; against it, 37 — only five 
Republicans voting in the negative. The Demo- 
crats, 32 in number, all voted in the negative. 

It will thus be seen that negro equality prevails 
to a greater or less extent in all New England; and 
the same tendency will be found to exist in all the 
Republican States of the West. Into the State 
of Ohio negroes and mulattoes are allowed to im- 
migrate without limit or restriction. 

2. They may vote at elections, if the white blood 
preponderates. The Democratic party passed an 
act excluding from suffrage any person having a 
visible admixture of African blood. This is yet 
upon the statute-book; but in Anderson vs. Milli- 
kin, the supreme court of Ohio, all Republicans, 
at the last term, decided it to be unconstitutional, 
notwithstanding the words "citizen of the United 
States" occur in the constitution of Ohio, which 
limits the right to white citizens of the linked 
States. There are quite a number of colored per- 
sons who vote; and I am informed they have gen- 
erally been allowed to vote on the Western Re- 
serve, where Black Republicanism has attained its 
full growth, without regard to the state of legisla- 
tion at all, or of judicial construction of it, and 
without any reference to the color, or the prepon- 
derance of blood. They are, of course, and always, 
against the Democrats; and although their num- 
ber never was precisely ascertained,. I am told it 
was the general impression that , in 1857, they were 
strong enough to turn the election in favor of Gov- 
ernor Chase. 

3. Under the Republican decision, referred to, 



mulattoes of more than half white blood have all 
the rights incident to citizenship, and are eligible 
to office. 

4. Prior to 1848, a black or mulatto was excluded 
as a witness in any cause to which a white per- 
son was a party, by statutory inhibition; but 
during; the time this statute was in force, the su- 
preme court decided, if the white blood predom- 
inated, the witness was competent. The act was 
repealed in 1848, and ever since negroes are al- 
lowed to testify the same as white persons. 

5. Persons having the qualifications of electors 
are competent as jurors, and the bar is open to 
citizens. So, under the Republican decision, be- 
fore referred to, if the white blood predominates, 
a mulatto is competent as a juror, and may be 
admitted to the bar. The Logan (Ohio) Gazette 
says that, under the late visible-admixture decis- 
ion, a mulatto man has been elected supervisor of a 
road district adjoining Belief ontaine, and xcill ac- 
cordingly lord it for his term of office over the white 
men of the district. 

6. There is no law forbidding the intermarriage 
of a negro with a white person, and I have under- 
stood that there have been instances of such inter- 
marriages in that State. (See appendix B.) 

So much for Republicanism and negro equality 
in the State of Ohio. 

Negroes are not restricted from coming into the 
State "of Wisconsin to live, and in that State they 
may intermarry with the whites, and testify in the 
courts in cases where white persons are parties. 
The same, I believe, is also true as to Michigan 
and Iowa, except that the proximity of Detroit 
to Canada makes laws allowing the marriage of 
blacks and whites in Michigan unnecessary, as a 
few minutes' run brings the parties where they can 
revel in social, legal, and political equality to their 
hearts' content. Iowa, I am told, allows negro 
children to attend the free schools on terms of 
equality with white children.' That these States 
are not entirely Africanized is probably owing to 
the fact that Republicanism has not yet obtained 
undisputed foothold there. That obtained, and 
the rest would no doubt speedily follow. 

Now, I believe, I have gone over every one of 
the States that voted for Fremont. Here is the list: 
Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 
Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. And now 
let us see how they stand upon this question of 
negro equality. We find, 

1. That into all these States negroes and mu- 
lattoes, without limit, may emigrate and become 
permanent residents, competing with the white 
man in his labor, and enjoying, to a greater or 
less extent, political equality with him. 

2. In every one of these States negroes and 
mulattoes may be witnesses in suits where white 
persons are parties, or where a negro is one party 
ami a white person the other. 

3. In all these States but three, negroes and 
mulattoes may sit on juries, or be lawyers, the 
same as white persons. 

4. In nearly all these States negroes and mulat- 
toes may vote at elections, the same as the white 
man. 

5. In nearly all these States negroes or mulat- 
toes may hold offices the same as the white man. 

6. In more than half these States negroes or 
mulattoes may intermarry with white persons. 



7. And send their negro or mulatto children to 
the public schools, in common with the white 
children. 

It will thus be seen that negro equality prevails 
to a greater or less extent, in all the States that 
voted for Fremont. In Massachusetts, which is 
a type of them all, and may justly be considered 
the model Republican State of the Union, negroes 
are received with a cordial welcome, and clothed 
with the privileges and immunities of the white 
man. They vote at elections, the same as the 
white man; .they may hold office; practice law; sit 
on juries in the trial of white persons; be witnesses 
against white persons; send their children to the 
free schools in common with white children; and, 
what is worse, intermarry with white persons, 
thus legalizingadisgusting, revolting, and ruinous 
system of practical amalgamation. 

The pernicious character of this system is ex- 
emplified in several occurrences of recent date 
The first is described, as follows: 

" A Remarkable Amalgamation Case — A 
Connecticut Widow Wedded to a Neguo \l\n- 
BER . — The following story, which seems almost 
too incredible for belief, is told by the Hartford 
Times. The case has created great excitement in 
that city: 

«' ' Mrs. C. B., of Bridgeport, awidow lady, the 
mother of four children, two of whom are mar- 
ried, became enamored a few months since of a 
colored barber, living in this city, by the name of 
Francis. The husband of Mrs.' B. left her, at his 
death, which took place about three years ago, 
between eight and ten thousand dollars. With 
a portion of this money she set the negro up in 
business in Bridgeport, but he some time ago re- 
moved to New York. The intimacy between 
them led to some scandal, when she confessed a 
few days ago that they were secretly married in 
New York in October last.' " 

The next occurrence very naturally follows the 
first. Here it is, from a late Boston paper: 
" Superior Criminal Coi b r, 

" Wednesday, March 14. 
" William H. Thompson, colored, who plead 
guilty to an indictmentfor assaulting his wife Cor- 
delia Thompson, and destroying one of her eyes, 
was sentenced to the House of Correction one 
year." 

A friend in Boston, who inclosed me these items, 
says that " the negro, Thompson, referred to in 
the last, married a white woman, and smashed her 
head with a chair." These are but samples of 
the pernicious fruits of practical negro equality 
(For an account of other occurrences of like char- 
acter, see appendix 1!.) 

Republicanism, then, in Massachusetts, would 
allow a white man to he accused of crime by a 
negro; to be arrested on the affidavit of a negro, 
by a negro officer; to be prosecuted by .a ne_:ro 
lawyer; testified against bya negrowitness; tried 
before a negro judge; convicted befdre a i ro 
jury; and executed by a negro executioner; and 
either one of these negroes might become the hus- 
band of his widow or his daughter I 

Negroes are not only considered the equal of 
the white man, but in some instances Ins supe- 
rior; for a negro coming into Massachusetts from 
another State, even though • may 

vote in one i/car; but a white man coming there 
from Germany, or any other foreign country, 



8 



would have to wait seven years before he could 
vote; thus placing the negro six years ahead of the 
white man who may happen to have been born on for- 
eign soil! 

Such are the practical and legitimate results of 
Republican theories, and I hold them up to the 
indignant gaze of my fellow-countrymen. 

From what I have shown it is fair to presume 
that such results are not repugnant to Republican 
views, and especially the views of that large num- 
ber of Republican Representatives, estimated at 
from fifty to seventy-five, who were sent to oc- 
cupy, and do occupy, seats in this Hall by the 
aid of negro votes; but they are exceedingly ob- 
noxious to my constituents, and, I believe, to the 
great mass of the American people. I thank God 
that my constituents are white freemen; and I 

flory in the belief that they will never consent to 
e placed on an equality with the negro. We 
want nothing to do with them, slave or free, and 
have wisely excluded them from coming into the 
State by constitutional provisions. We think 
there is much truth in the remark of the London 
Times, " that if one thing more than another has 
tended to give the Anglo-Saxon race in the New 
World the victory over the Spanish, it is that it 
has kept itself apart from the red and negro races, 
and lodged power constantly in the hands of men 
of European origin. It has been fully proved, 
not only on the American continent, but in our 
own colonies, that the enforced equality of the 
European and African tends, not to the elevation 
of the black, but to the degradation of the white 
man." We hold our Government to be awhile man's 
Government, and discountenance everything tend- 
ing to a mixture, or equality of the races. If you 
ask me why this is so, I answer: because Indiana 
is a Democratic State. We have not to thank 
the Republican party that our State is not now 
overrun by negroes and mulattoes. The leaders 
of that party opposed their exclusion. Nearly 
all, if not all, the Republicans of this Congress 
from that State opposed it; and some of them 
made able but rather significant speeches in the 
constitutional convention. The curious are re- 
ferred to the debates of that distinguished body, 
particularly pages 253, 457, 615, and 628, of the 
first volume. 

Neither can it be forgotten that when a resolu- 
tion was proposed in the Senate of Indiana, de- 
claring it to be inexpedient to allow negroes or 
mulattoes to attend as scholars in the common 
schools in that State, or to give testimony in the 
courts of justice against white persons, it was de- 
feated by the united vote of the Republican sen- 
ators. (The resolution, with the proceedings, 
will be found in appendix C.) I consider the ex- 
clusion of negroes from coming into that State, 
and the absence there of everything like negro 
equality, to be entirely attributable to the ascend- 
ency of the Democratic party. The same is no 
doubt equally true of Illinois, Oregon, California, 
and other Democratic free States, in nearly all of 
which similar legislation prevails. 

I know that Republican leaders have spoken 
sneeringly and contemptuously of the States thus 
discriminating in favor of the white race. Because 
such discrimination was in the constitution of 
Oregon, and foreigners who had declared their in- 
tention to become citizens were allowed to vote 
before taking the final oath, Republicans in Con- 



gress denounced that constitution as an "infa- 
mous instrument," an "infamous atrocity;" and 
seventy of them voted against her admission, not- 
withstanding she was a free State. (See Con- 
gressional Globe, second session Thirty-Fifth 
Congress, pages 984 and 1010.) 

And thus we have still another exhibition of 
that love of the negro and hatred of the white 
foreigner which we have seen in the Republican 
legislation of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and 
in the repeated declarations of prominent Repub- 
licans. In view of these indisputable facts, none 
of our adopted citizens who entertain properself- 
respect can for a moment think of voting the Re- 
publican ticket. If they did so vote they would be 
giving " aid and comfort" to their worst enemies; 
for foreign-born citizens would probably be more 
degraded and injured by carrying out the Repub- 
lican policy than any other class of society. 

One of the most prominent Republicans now 
upon this floor, a gentleman distinguished for his 
ability and zeal for the Republican cause, [Mr. 
Dawes,] has recently written a letter to a negro 
convention upon " the disabilities imposed upon 
free colored persons by the constitutions of many 
of the so-called free States." He says, in speak- 
ing of these " so-called free States," " that such 
a State is called a free State passes my comprehen- 
sion. It is all a false pretense and a fraud;" and he 
thinks it is high time " for those who make it the 
corner-stone of their political creed that all men 
are created equal," to meet and grapple the 
"monstrous heresy" of such States. (See appen- 
dix D for this letter in full.) 

No doubt, if the Republicans get sufficient 
power, the so-called " monstrous heresy" of dis- 
criminations in favor of white men will be 
crushed out, and these States will be made "free 
Stales," according to the Massachusetts standard, 
which seems to be that a white man is to be con- 
sidered the equal of the "nigger," provided he 
behaves himself as well, and does not happen to 
be of foreign birth. Sir, because the Democratic 
party refuse to recognize the negro as the equal 
of the white man, it is no evidence of the hostility 
of that party to him. I believe the Democratic 
party to be his real friend, and the Republican 
party his worst enemy. It is true, a portion of 
that party would entice the negro slave to run 
away to Canada, or oome State in the Union where 
he would be converted into a Republican voter; 
but it would be freedom in name, and not in sub- 
stance, and would bring no real happiness with 
it. If negro slaves are kept closer, and ruled with 
a harsher rein now than formerly, it is because 
their masters are driven to it by the conduct of 
the Republican party; and it is for the same rea- 
son that southern States are adopting laws to drive 
out all free r.egroes from their borders. 

The truth is, the free negro, as a general thing, 
is unfit to govern himself; and, under the most 
favorable' circumstances, in free States, it is said 
he has but three rounds in the ladder of his am- 
bition — to be a boss barber, have a banjo, and a 
white wife The inferior being we find him, the 
Almighty, for some wise purpose — " He doeth 
all things well" — seems to have designed him. A 
negro He made him, and it is not in the power of 
all the Abolitionists and Republicans on earth to 
make him anything else. 

Upon the subject of his inferiority, and utter 



9 



inability to compete with the white race, or gov- 
ern himself, I have in my possession an important 
letter, of recent date, written by a gentleman who 
has possessed better opportunities for forming a 
correct judgment than, perhaps, any man in the 
United States. Originally an intense believer in 
all the negro equality doctrines of the most ultra 
Abolitionists, he was selected, because of that 
belief, and his peculiar fitness, as a professor in an 
institution intended, as far as possible, to develop 
African talent. After a patient and persevering 
eflort of many years' duration, he was forced to 
give up his long-cherished idea that the negro was, 
or could be made, the equal of the white man; and 
now he comes forward, like an honest man, and 
acknowledges his error in the frank and manly 
letter I have before me. He says: 

" I appreciate the compliment you pay me, in 
soliciting my opinion upon a question that I be- 
lieve involves infinite consequences, not only to 
this Republic, but to humanity itself. It appeals 
with great force to the best energies of the patriot 
and philanthropist; and I exceedingly regret that 
I have neither language nor ability to do justice 
to the convictions that have been produced by the 
experience of facts that beardirectly upon this mo- 
mentous subject. 1 am free to state that my con- 
victions of the character of the African race, de- 
rived from my long experience as teacher, and my 
very intimate acquaintance with the colored peo- 
ple during that time, which, toa great degree, was 
unavoidable, were forced upon me against long- 
cherished and favorite theories, and very strong 
prejudices. Jlfter making due alloicance for the 
artificial and cruel degradation that the free colored 
person is subjected to among the whites, as society 
is 11010 constituted, with all its prejudices against 
color, I have come to the unequivocal conclusion 
that the Jlfrican is a distinct species of the human 
race; differing radically, and as definitely, to the 
careful observer, in mental construction and intel- 
lectual bias, as in physical conformation and exter- 
nal appearance. That he cannot, with equal advant- 
ages, compete successfully until the ivhite man in any 
of the enterprises of civilized society, (without the 
tropics at least,) where intellect is a requisite qual- 
ification. This is a broad assertion, I am aware, 
yet I fully believe that it is capable of being sub- 
stantiated by irrefragable proof; and so far as 
facts are concerned, and necessary for corrobo- 
ration, they crowd upon the observation of the 
most casual inquirer after truth. I do not deny 
that there are exceptions, to a very considerable 
extent, to this general rule. I admit that 1 have 
found remarkable, intelligent, and intellectual in- 
dividuals among the colored people; yet they have 
been remarkable as colored persons, rather than 
being viewed so when contrasted with distin- 
guished genius of the whites. Moreover, these ex- 
ceptions, as far as my observation has extended, 
have invariably been confined to mulattoes, where 

traits manifestly of the white race predominated." 

******** 

"You inquire my views of the 'practical results 
of amalgamation.' In reply to that question, I re- 
mark that I possess no language to express my 
abhorrence and loathing of it; nor of my convic- 
tions of its bam ful and pernicious effects upon 
human happiness and human society. I esteem 
amalgamation as one of the worst consequences 
of the existence of the African race in this coun- 



try. Physically, it is a blight upon offspring. 
Disease, unusual in any other class of human 
beings, is the result. The mulatto is less prolific 
than either the white or black, and, after arriving 
at puberty, generally becomes sickly, inclining to 
consumption; and a very large portion of this 
class die before reaching middle age; whereas the 
African of unmixed blood is the longest-lived 
being of the human family. Important and per- 
nicious as these physical evils are, they are trifling, 
compared with the misery that amalgamation 
brings upon its wretched victims, in a social point 
of view. The mulatto is not recognized as an 
equal by white men. For this injustice, as he 
esteems it, he cherishes the most bitter and vindic- 
tive malignity. His chagrin and mortified feelings 
fester in Yiis breast, till he becomes an unmitigated 
hater of those who, as he is naturally impressed, 
without any just cause, have slighted him. The 
negro he despises, who, in turn, envies and hates 
the one who puts on airs of consequence before 
him, and assumes to be his superior on account 
of his lighter complexion. Indeed, the legitimate 
and inevitable fruits of amalgamation in this coun- 
try, at least, are physical imbecility, disease, an A 
premature death, moral degradation and social 
wretchedness that induces crime, which ends in 
infamy. My firm belief is, taking into consideration 
the manifest difference of the mental structure of the 
two races, that they cannot dwell together in one com- 
munity on an equality; nor can the Jlfrican race 
maintain an equality as to numbers even, only in a 
state of slavery. Revolting and horrid as this as- 
sertion may appear to a class of philanthropists, 
nevertheless it can be verified by facts and figures. 
The colored population in Massachusetts, had it 
increased upon the whites to this time in the same 
ratio that if did up to 1787, when slavery was 
abolished, would have amounted to more than 
two hundred thousand; yet they number, in the 
whole State, short of fifteen thousand. In New 
York similar facts arc presented. Instead of more 
than five hundred thousand, which would have 
leen the result of the ratio of increase up to 1600, 
when slavery was prospectively abolished, there 
are at this time scarcely one eighth of that num- 
ber. 

" According to the statistics of Maryland some 
years since, the annual mortality among the slaves 
was one in seventy-seven; whereas, among the 
free blackfc, it was one in eighteen, which, at that 
time, was about the proportion of deaths among 
the colored population in the city of Nv\v York. 
Therefore, if the prosperity offa people is to be esti- 
mated by their increase in population, surely sla- 
very has high claims upon the colored race. We 
find by the "census of Massachusetts, that it sus- 
tains a much more dense population, and a greater 
number of persons to the square mile, than any 
other State m the Union; herState and municipal 
bounties are peculiarly fitted to increase her popu- 
lation; her superior public schools, to which all, 
without distinction of rare or color, are admitted 
free of expense; her academies and colleges, un- 
equnled by those of any partof the United States, 
are alike open to all; berwwUy institutions, where 

the needy are aided, the poor supported, and the 
unfortunate cared for, even in G it its, 

where the negro is legally on an equality with the 
white man, [if every respect, where every office of 
honor, trust, and emolument, is accessible to and 



10 



i: 



offered him to stimulate his ambition; still, with 
all these helps at his command, he dwindles; and I 
the number of colored persons, if they had not \ 
become extinct before this, would have been much 
smaller than it now >s, had not their ranks (which ! 
annually have been so mercilessly thinned by | 
death) been constantly replenished by fugitives 
from the South. 

" Thus, my dear sir, I have endeavored to com- 
ply with your request, by giving you my views 
of the colored race, derived from my twelve years' 
experience as teacher, and the acquaintance dur- 
ing that time with that peculiar people. Let me 
here assure you that I have none but the kindest 
feelings toward them. My remarks, I am per- 
fectly^ ware, are incoherent, but they are honestly 
given; and if I have been led into errors, they are 
errors of the head, and not of the heart. You ask 
whether my name maybe given I suppose that 
means whether I would consent to have my re- 
marks made public with my name attached to 
them. In reply, I would say, that I do not object 
to having my views of the 'African race' made 
ublic; for I believe them to be important; not, 
towever, because they arc my views, but because 
they are true, and should be known; but there are 
considerations which induce me to prefer that my 
name should be withheld; one is the hasty and 
unpremeditated manner in which the communica- 
tion was prepared. I am willing that extracts 
from it should be made public, if, in your opin- 
ion, they would be of sufficient importance." 

The "subject of negro inferiority is so fully and 
clearly discussed in this letter that it is scarcely 
necessary for me to resume it. 

The truth is, in his own native Africa, the ne- 
gro is now, and has been in all ages, but one de- 
gree removed from the beasts of the iield, and so 
immeasurably worse off than the slaves of the 
South, that the true philanthropist may well thank 
Providence for the institution of American sla- 
very; and I am told by competent judges that he 
is in a far worse condition in Canada, with his 
so-called freedom, than he is in slavery in any of 
the southern States. (See appendix E.) I believe 
the negro slaves of this country are better off this 
day than the same number of the same race in any 
part of the world ; and if he is ever to be elevated , 
so as to be fit for self-government, it will be whilst 
he is subject to the legal direction of the white race, 
under such prudent restrictions as humane white 
legislators will ever provide. His place is not 
with us in the North, but in the South, where 
the climate is congenial to his nature; and I be- 
lieve the true policy of the free States is to pro- 
vide, by restrictive legislation and a judicious 
system of colonization, for the entire and abso- 
lute separation of the two races. 

At last the question of slavery must be left for the 
people of each State to determine for themselves. 
That is not the question which is now pressing 
upon the people of the free States for decision; it 
is whether, by the ascendency of this Republican 
party, the peace of the whole country shall be endan- 
gered, the guarantees of the Constitution violated, 
and these free States overrun icith free negroes, to 
eat out the substance of the ichitc man, compete with 
his labor, and trespass upon his political rights. 
These are the questions that spring from the un- 
fortunate and mistaken "irrepressible-conflict" 
doctrines of the Republican party 



That there is really no antagonism between 
the labor systems of the North and South, and 
no causa for estrangement, is evinced by the fact 
that where the people of the slave and non-slave- 
holding States have the greatest intercourse with 
each other, and the best opportunities of knowing 
and judging of each other's institutions, there will 
be found the greatest friendship and harmony. 
Hence, if you will go into that part of Ohio, In- 
diana, or Illinois, bordering upon Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri, you will find less prejudice 
against the South and the institution of slavery 
than you will find in distant States, like Mas- 
sachusetts or Vermont, or even the more remote 
portions of the same border States; and I believe 
the same peculiarity exists everywhere in the bor- 
der free States. 

It is a remarkable fact, and one that fully vin- 
dicates the correctness of my position, that, with 
only two exceptions, every border congressional 
district in the free States, from the eastern Ohio 
line to the mouth of the Ohio river, and thence up 
the Mississippi river to the northwest line of the 
State of Missouri — a distance of more than a thou- 
sand miles — was represented in the last Congress 
by national Democrats, loyal to the Constitution, 
and faithful to all the obligations of a common 
brotherhood; and there are but four Republicans 
in this Republican Congress from this long line 
of border districts, and I believe apart of the four 
are here rather from accident than ©therwise. 

And we find the same remarkable and gratify- 
ing exhibition at the South; for it is gentlemen 
from remote slaveholding States who clamor loud- 
est against the alleged bad faith of the North, and 
not those from border States like Kentucky and 
Missouri, where the best opportunities of form- 
ing correct opinions certainly exist. Such bor- 
der States necessarily know most and sutler most, 
if evils exist; and yet extreme opinions and dec- 
larations are but seldom heard from them. 

Now, why is it that people at a distance, who 
must have less knowledge upon the subject, and 
less at stake, than those on the border, should 
insist upon ultra positions and extreme views? 
Surely those of us in free States, who live near 
the border, and have daily intercourse with the 
people of the slaveholding States, and daily wit- 
ness the workings of slave State institutions, are 
better judges of the matter than people who, from 
their remote positions, must judge of it from ab- 
stract ideas and local prejudices. We judge of it 
from practical knowledge; they from abstract the- 
ories and sectional views. When Republicans 
talk about the slave oligarchy and the slave power, 
and undertake to depict the deplorable condition 
of negroes at the South, we can tell them, " We 
know better than you do." We know the people oj 
the South, and they are as high-minded, honorable, 
kind-hearted, and patriotic as the people of the 
North; and, as a general thing, their negro slaves 
are well fed, well clothed, kindly treated, and in- 
finitely better off than negroes now are, or ever 
were, in Africa; and, we are inclined to think, 
quite as much so as the free negroes in Canada, or 
even in the United States. When they tell us there 
is " an irrepressible conflict between the labor sys- 
tems of the two sections, which must continue 
until one or the other is abolished, and that the 
good of the country demands it should be the sys- 
tem of the South," we tell them again, "We know 



11 



better." There is no conflict, except that fostered 
and kept up by the sectionalism of the Republican 
party; and that, as I have already shown, when 
traced to its legitimate and ultimate results, is a 
conflict as to whether negroes in this Government 
are or are not to be regarded and treated as citi- 
zens, equal in political rights with white people. 

We know, on the contrary, that the labor sys- 
tems of the two sections work together for good 
and not for evil, that they aid each other without 
injuring either. We must have cotton, sugar, and 
rice, especially the former, and these grow only 
where the sun is too hot for the white man to 
work in the fields with comfort or profit; but 
when.' the negro can work and keep slick, healthy, 
and fit in the operation. His labor cannot com- 
pete with our labor at the North; nor can our labor 
compete with his at the South. All experience 
teaches that he will not work effectively without 
a master, and therefore we say let Sambo stick to 
his cotton. 

"Cotton is the material out of which a mighty 
cable has been gradually, but inextricably, inter- 
woven, not only with the destinies of this Repub- 
lic, but of tens upon tens of millions beyond it, 
so as in some measure to have entangled in its web 
nearly all civilization. To sever it would produce 
new calamities, second oidy to the sudden and 
utter disappearance from the world of iron. The 
silk looms, the fine-cloth factories, the potteries, 
the glass works, the manufacture of linens, shawls, 
laces, and of innumerable articles of use or lux- 
ury, might vanish in one night to subside forever 
among the lost arts, without occasioning one tithe 
the ruin and desolation which the severance of 
that humble cotton link would occasion. The 
cotton which these negroes of the southern States 
produce, clothes at least sixty millions of the 
human race, or what is the same thing, clothes 
partially double or treble that number." — Hen- 
HUigsen. 

Whilst they are raising cotton for our use, 
and to supply a foreign demand which brings 
$150,000,000 into the country every year — more 
than is brought in by all the exported products 
of the free States — we in the Northwest will be 
raising grain to feed them, and not only them, 
but, tn a considerable extent, those in the East, 
and other portions of the world, who manufacture 
the cotton; and thus our farmers will never want 
amarket for their surplus. That man in theNorth- 
west must be dull of intellect, indeed, or strangely 
blinded by the prejudice of party, not to see that 
this Republican ideaof an "irrepressible conflict" 
— and it is the leading idea of that party — is un- 
founded, ill advised, and well calculated to do an 
infinite amount of injury. Even if its anti-sla- 
very sentiment were right in theory, it could not 
be carried into practice without doing a vast 
amount of evil. 

It is a remarkable fact that, of the vast number 
who are constantly crying out against the institu- 
tion of slavery, you will but rarely find one who 
will pretend to offer any reasonable and practica- 
ble method to get rid of it. The great difficulty 
is, that such men forget that this is a practical 
world we live in, and jump at conclusions, from 
prejudices and visionary theories, that never can 
be realized without producing more mischief than 
tin: evils complained of. Even if the masters 
would all consent to emancipate their slaves, on 



receiving their value from the general Treasury, 
would it be desirable to carry it into practice? 
Only think of it a moment. There are some four 
million slaves in the United States, worth at pres- 
ent say $1,000 each, making $4,000,000,000; the 
I interest on which, at six per cent., would amount 
; to $240,000,000 per annum. Divided amongst the 
States, according to population, Indiana's por- 
:', tion would be $10*0,000,000— forty-four times the 
amount of her present debt, which the people even 
;' now feel to be a grievous burden. It would be 
absolutely unbearable and out of the question; 
i but even if it were not, and this or some other 
' plan could be carried out, and the slaves all set 
; free, would it not be, after all, like the man who 
' won the elephant, that he could neither sell, give 
away, or keep ? What would we do with an ad- 
dition of four million to our present stock of free 
| negroes ? It would all end in a war of races, or 
J else in a mixture of races, and a degradation of 
I the white man too horrible for the mind to con- 
I template. 

I appeal to my countrymen, therefore, to set 
! their face against this whole anti-slavery agitation. 
They must see it can do no good, but may do an 
infinite amount of evil. Our rapid progress and 
great prosperity as a nation are the admiration 
of the world; and yet all this time we have had 
this institution of slavery in about half the States. 
What better proof could we have that the two 
systems work together for good and not for evil? 
j i It is not for feeble mortals always to comprehend 
[, the designs of Providence. It may be that slavery 
'•', in this country is the instrument by which and 
; through which Africa is at last to be lifted up 
from her deeply-degraded and barbarous condi- 
tion. The problem will be worked out in God 's 
! own good time; and, no doubt, to the advance- 
ment of His glory and the welfare of the human 
, family. Our true policy is to let well enough 
alone. 

The aggregate number of slaves in the United 
i States can only be increased by a renewal of the 
' African slave trade, which all parties oppose ; and 
whether the number now here and their natural 
i increase be diffused to some new Territories and 
States, where the soil and climate are suitable to 
slave labor, or all compressed within the limits of 
. the present States, is not a matter of v- ry greal 
•\ concern to us of the North. Humanity, as well 
as fairness towards our southern brethren, should 
rather incline us to favor a reasonable and just 
expansion of southern territory. A partnership 
which inures only to the benefit oi' one party, 
where others have equal rights, can hardly be con- 
sidered either just or generous; and Buch would 
be the Republican doctrine, that we arenevefagain 
to admit a slave State under any circumstances. 
That matter the Democratic party will leave fo» 
1 the determination of the people when they come to 
form for themselves a constitution and State gov- 
ernment. That party believes in the equality of 
States, but not in the equality of negroes with 
! white people. 

It has been said, in glowing and truthful lan- 
guage, which I adopt, and with which I conclude, 
'that, "founded upon the eternal principles of 
truth and justice, with the Constitution for its 
guide, the prosperity and perpetuity 6f the Union 
tor its aim, the Democratic party has so far re- 
< taincd its integrity unspotted and its power till- 



12 



broken. It is now, as it was in the days of old, 
the friend of civil and religious freedom, the friend 
of the people, and the advocate of the great and 
simple truths which the Constitution embodies. 
Prejudiced against no section of our common 
country; pledged to the support of no measure 
that does not insure equal and exact justice to 
all; enlisted not in the cause of men, but in de- 
fense of principles; it will enter the coming con- 
test with the same consciousness of the final tri- 
umph of its cause which cheered it in former 
struggles — the consciousness that it is the cause 
of truth and justice. With the Constitution it 
arose; with the Constitution it has lived, and to- 
gether with the Constitution it will die. The one 
cannot survive the other. Without the Consti- 
tution , the Democratic party would be broken up ; 
without the Democratic party, the Constitution 
would become in a day the foot-ball of fanaticism. 
The friend of the one may well say of the other, 
esto perpetua!" 

APPENDIX. 



Governor Smith's statement of a conversation ivith 
Senator Seward. 

The following statement was made on the floor 
of the House of Representatives, December 24, 
1859, by Hon. William Smith, of Virginia. 
(See Congressional Globe, pp. 238, 239:) 

" 1 will repeat the substance of what occurred. On one 
occasion, when I was Governor of Virginia, while sitting 
in the council chamber of our State, with one or two of- 
ficials around me, a polite and in bearing a genteel stran- 
ger stepped in, and announced himself as Mr. Seward, of 
New York. He was so youthful in appearance, that I did 
not imagine lie was the ex-Goyernor of that proud Com- 
monwealth. I asked him to take a seat. He expressed a 
wish to see the Lieutenant Governor, and stated that he 
had an official acquaintance with him. I understood that 
there had been a very angry controversy before that be- 
tween the authorities of Virginia and the authorities of 
New York, or rather Governor Seward. I sent for the 
Lieutenant Governor, and in the mean time we entered 
into a conversation respecting the extraordinary doctrines 
of that controversy. Daring that conversation, speakingof 
Governor Davis, of Massachusetts, I at once inferred it 
must be the ex-Governor of New York with whom I was 
conversing. 1 then said to him that I presumed I was con- 
versing with ex-Governor Seward, of New York. He 
said yes ; and we continued the conversation. 

" There was at that time some considerable agitation 
about a convention in our State, and also in New York; 
and we entered into a conversation in respect to ourrespect- 
ive State conventions. We soon got upon the right of suf- 
frage, lie said that, in their convention, they would soon 
settle that question, and have no future difficulty. He said, 
'We mean all shall vote.' 'All." said I. ' Yes,' he replied, 
' everybody ; and only requiring residence.' ' What ! col- 
ored people and all." 'Yes; colored people and all.' I 
then said to him that, from the manner in which he treated 
the subject, he relieved me very much of one ol my most 
serious difficulties. As Governor of Virginia, it had been 
my pleasure, and my duty, I conceive, to press the question 
of emigrating our free negroes from within the borders of 
Virginia. I told him that the difficulty was, that we did not 
know exactly where to send them ; that I did not desire the 
emigration of free negroes from any unkindness to them, hut 
because they were a demoralizing link between the white 
men and the slaves; that, under our institutions and our 
convictions, it was impossible for them to have these advant- 
ages and means of improvement of which it was claimed 
that they were capable ; and therefore we desire to send 
them among their sympathizers, that they might show that 
they were equal to white men. I stated that I was relieved 
from that ditheulty, because New York would have no dif- 
ficulty in receiving that class of persons, as he assured me. 
He replied : ' None, none ; we will receive them with great 
pleasure. We have a great deal of difficulty ivith the Ger- 
man and Irish voters in limes of election; we have to raise 
a great deal of money to secure their vote. The rascals taJic 



our money, and then vole against us ; but we have no such 
trouble with the colored men.' I replied : ' This is a very 
remarkable conversation, I must be allowed to say, and I 
ean confess to you that, with every cargo we send North, 
we are in the habit of sending a certain number of free pas- 
sages ; and we would be very glad, for all such that we send, 
to take back good-hearted Germans and Irishmen, of whom 
we can make good citizens.' We went on to speculate 
upon the subject. 1 mentioned the conversation to Senator 
Foote some time after it occurred, and he, I believed, in- 
troduced it into the Senate, and called the attention of that 
body to it. The Senator from New York, I understand, said 
nothing in reply to Senator Foote's exposition of the mut- 
ter, although it was said that the gentleman's silence would 
be regarded as giving consent, and I also understood that a 
paper conducted by Mr. Ritchie made the charge, and the 
Albany Journal denied it. 

" What I have said upon this subject has been entirely 
according to my recollection this day. 

" Mr. Farnsworth. I would inquire of the gentleman 
when that conversation took place? 

" Mr. Smith, of Virginia. In 1847 or 1848, in the city of 
Richmond. 

" Mr. Farnsworth. In the gentleman's office^? 

"Mr. Smith, of Virginia. In the public council cham- 
ber. 

" Mr. Farnsworth. Who were present? 

" Mr. Smith, of Virginia. Some two or three gentlemen 
were present. I will say further, that Senator Foote told 
me he afterwards had a laugh with Senator Seward upon 
the subject, and that that gentleman did not question tfie 
accuracy of his exposition of that matter. 

" Mr. Farnsworth. I would like to inquire of the gen- 
tleman whether he also had a laugh with Governor Seward 
about it? 

"Mr. Smith, of Virginia. No, sir; I did not. Mr. Sew- 
ard was a stranger to me. We talked upon grave ques- 
tions as strangers ; and upon the discussion of grave ques 
tions laughter would not be likely to occur." 

B. 

A few more instances of anti-slavery and negro equal- 
ity doctrines reduced to practice — the result of 
amalgamation — a white wife prosecutes her negro 
husband for cruelty — the story of her married life. 
"Among the cases on the police docket this morning was 
that of James Akers, a colored barber, for creating a dis- 
turbance. The complaint was made by his wife, a white 
woman about nineteen years of age." * * * » 
" Mrs. Akers is a young woman of some attraction. She 
says she loves Akers dearly ; but cannot endure to be 
treated in the manner he serves her. She says he has re- 
peatedly threatened to take her life ; and he has his razors 
secreted in different places, so as to be ready on any emer- 
gency. He is a drunken, dissolute fellow. The troubles 
and trials of the ill-assorted couple are the natural con- 
sequences of their disgusting connection." — Cleveland 
Herald. 

A Negro, seventy years of age, marries a White 
Girl of twenty. 
"A singular marriage took place in this city last evening, 
savs the Cincinnati Gazette (a Republican paper) of the 
24th of last month. A negro, a shade darker in hue than 
the ace of spades, is represented to have led to the hymeneal 
altar a young and not bad looking white girl. The dispar- 
ity in color was, however, only equaled by the difference 
in ages — the bridegroom verging on threescore years and 
ten, while twenty summers have not yet passed over the 
head of the bride. The fact that the marriage was to take 
place was known to those inhabiting the upper part of the 
city, and when the marital rites were performed, a crowd, 
large in numbers and promiscuous in character, partici- 
pated. The name of the patriarchal old swain is Winston, 
and the girl, Mary Cain." 

Another White Girl Elopes icith a Negro in Michi- 
gan — Practical Abolitionistn. 
A case of practical amalgamation has»just come to light 
in our neighboring county of Washtenaw, which is, as 
usual, replete with the disgusting features which charac- 
terize these affairs. A young girl, seventeen years of age, 
a daughter of Mr. Hiram L. Stout, of the town of Sharon, 
eloped a day or two since with a negro boy who was in the 
service of lier father, and, it is thought, has gone with him 
to Canada. The sable seducer's name is Bill Strong, and 
he is about twenty-three years old. The girl is an intelli- 
gent, well-educated female, and no reason can be assigned 



13 



for her conduct, except that her father is an Abolitionist of 
the unadulterated stripe, and taught, as the repentant Jud- 
son did, that a negro was a little better than anybody else. 
The parents are nearly distracted over the occurrence, and 
are making every effort to recover their daughter. She has 
always been looked upon with esteem and respeet, and the 
whole community were taken by surprise when the facts 
were revealed. No suspicion was excited by the conduct 
of the couple, their love scenes having been transacted 
strictly in private. They went at first to the village of Napo- 
leon, where they tried 'to get married, but could find nobody 
to perform the ceremony. From there they departed for un- 
known localities, and are supposed, reasonably enough, to 
have made a straight wake for the Canadian territories. 
Mr. Stout has always preached the abolition dogma. We 
imagine that he will eschew amalgamation doctrines here- 
after, and join the experienced Judson in supporting a 
straight Democratic ticket. Practical teachings are severe, 
but effective — Detroit Free Press, April 25. 

Amalgamation Ball in New York. 

A grand amalgamation ball came ofT not long since, 
says the New York News, at the Assembly Kooms, Prince 
street, composed entirely of black men and white women ; 
no white man or black woman was admitted. 

The room was tastefully decorated with banners, flags, 
&c, and the portraits of celebrated Abolitionists, conspic- 
uous among the number being a beautiful colored photo- 
graph of John Brown, surrounded by a wreath of laurel. At 
one o'clock the festivities were brought to a close by the 
arrival of Broadway gamblers and shoulder-hitters, with 
bags of flour and soot concealed about their persons. They 
commenced by throwing the flour over the black men, and 
the soot on the white women. At this juncture the lights 
were extinguished, and then commenced a scene which 
beggars description. 

Another Amalgamation Case. 
The Troy Arena says that quite an excitement exists In 
a certain quarter in that city, in regard to the marriage of a 
white woman and a darkey, as also the attempted suicide 
of another white woman, whe fell in love with anegro who 
is a married man and has a family. The marriage of the 
former took place last week, and was on account "of being 
recently divorced from her husband, who is a respectable 
man, and resides in that city. The parents of the woman 
reside in Albany. They formerly lived in Troy, and are 
highly esteemed. The motive is said to be revenge. The 
parties were married by a colored minister, and aro living 
together in the lower part of Troy. 

c. 

Proceedings in the Senate of Indiana upon a resolu- 
tion in relation to negro equality. 

" Mr. Gooding (Democrat) offered the following resolu- 
tion : 

"' Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Senate, it is in- 
expedient to allow negroes or mulattoes to attend as schol- 
ars to the common schools of this State, or to give testimony 
in our courts of justice against white persons.' 

"Mr. Suit (Republican) moved to lay the resolution on 
the table. 

" The ayes and noes being demanded by Senators Wal- 
lace and Heffren, those who voted in the affirmative were — 

" Messrs. Bcarss, Blair, Bobbs, Burke, Chapman, Cooper, 
Crane, Cravens, Crouse, Drew, F.nsey, Green, Qrigga, 
Hendry, Hill, Kinley, March, Parker, Rice, Stevens, Suit, 
Thompson, \Veir, and Weston — 24. 

(Republicans in Italic; Americans in small capitals; 
Democrats in Roman.) 

" Those who voted in the negative were — 

"Messrs. Brown, Pisk, Frkeland, Gooding, Hargrove, 
Ileflren, Bostetler, Johnston, Mansfield, MeClurc, McLean, 
Richardson, Kugg, Sage, Slatur of Dearborn, and Wallace 
— 16. 

" So the resolution was laid oh the table."— Senate Jour- 
nal of liuT, p. 60J. 

D. 

Letter of Hon. II. L. Dawes, a distinguished Repub- 
lican member of Congress from Massachusetts, en 
" the disabilities imposed uponfree colored per- 
sons by the constitutions of many of the so-called 
free States." 

North Adims, Mass., September 26, 185!). 
Dear Sir: Yours or the 19th, inclosing a. copy of the 
resolutions recently adopted by a convention of colored cit- 



izens of New England, assembled at Boston, was received 
here in my absence from home, or it would have been sooner 
acknowledged. I am greatly obliged to the convention for 
the complimentary notice it was pleased to take of myself 
in one of its resolutions. 

The disabilities imposed upon free colored persons by the 
constitutions of many of the so-called free States have very 
properly found place in the deliberation of the convention. 
Indeed, the position which the free colored citizen shall 
hereafter occupy at the North has seemed to me to be a ques- 
tion deserving more attention from all than it has hitherto re- 
ceived. It lies, in my opinion, directly across the path of 
the emancipationist, and must be encountered and correctly 
settled befffre any permanent or healthy progress can be 
made. The groiring disposition, in the new States that are 
forming in the gjeat West with such rapidity and on such a 
magnificent scale, to disfranchise, disable, and drive out the 
free negroesfrom their border, should be firmly met and coun- 
teractedby those who makeit the corner stone of their politi- 
cal creed that " all men are created cowi." 

That a State whose constitution imposes upon any class 
of men who have committed no crime the disability that 
they " shall never have the right of suffrage" — "shall never 
hold any real estate" — "shall never make any contract"— 
"shall never work any mine" — "shall never maintain any 
suit"— or " come, reside, or be within the State ;" that such 
a State is called a free State passes my comprehension. It 
is all a false pretense and a fraud. There is no real difference 
between the spirit which would incorporate such provis- 
ions into the organic laws of a State, and that which infa- 
mously declares that the " negro has no rights which the 
white man is bound to respect." It is high time, therefore, 
for those who believe that men have inalienable rights to 
meet and grapple this monstrous heresy. It well engaged the 
attention of so intelligent a convention of colored citizens 
assembled in New England, the only portion of the Union 
where the rights of man, without distinction of color, or 
race, or class, or condition, are secured to him by the con- 
stitutional guarantees. It must sooner or later, and better 
soon than late, arrest the serious attention of the statesman 
who hopes for the perpetuity of the principles upon which 
the framework of our Government was founded. 

Respectfully, yours, H. L. DAWES. 

William C. Neil, Esq. 

E. 

Contrast behceen the condition of Negro Slaves in 
the South and Free Negroes elsewhere. 

"How Southern Slaves are Treated. — The We- 
tumpka (Alabama) Enquirer says : On last week thirteen 
slaves belonging to Governor Fitzpatrick, accompanied by 
Mr. Gunn, the overseer, brought their cotton to market, and 
sold it for a sum amounting in the aggregate to §994 92. 
Ahab, another one of the Governor's negroes, with the oth- 
ers, will soon bring theirs in. This money is their own, 
not one dime of it going into their owner's pocket, and he 
feeds and clothes them besides, and provides for them in 
old age. 

" The above is only a single instance of what is •ommon 
on every cotton plantation in the South." 

It has been forcibly said, in an article of recent 
date, that — 

"The statistics of the different churches in the South 
show that four hundred and filly thousand negroes have 
been converted and accepted the Gospel of our Saviour ; 
whereas in Africa, with all the money that has been no 
less foolishly than lavishly spent, and all the many valuable 
lives sacrificed to christianize and civilize the African, 
they cannot show where four hundred have been converted 
and retain the Word of God. I will hen' quote one solitary 
extract from the able work of Professor Bledsoe : 

" 'The native African could not be degraded ; of the in- 
habitants of the continent of Africa, it H estimated that 
forty millions were slavrs. The masters have the power 
of life and death over the slave; and. in fact, his slaves 
were often fid, killed, and eaten, just as we do with oxen 
or sheep ill this country ; nay. the hind and forequaitsra of 
men, women, and children, might be seen bong on the 
shambles and exposed for Bale. Thetrworhen ware beasti 
hi' burden, ami when young they wen; regarded as a great 
delicacyby the palates of their pampered masters. A ynung 
..warrior would Bemetimee take a score of young females 
along with him, in order to enrich his feasts and regale his 
appetite: he delighted in such delicacies. Aatohls reli- 
gion, it was worse even than his morals ; or, rather, his re- 
ligion was a mass of the most disgusting Immoralities. His 
notion of a God, and the obscene acta by whn-h thai notion 
was worshiped, are too shocking to be mentioned. The 



14 



vilest slave that ever breathed the air of a Christian land 
could not begin to conceive the horrid iniquities of such a 
life ; and yet, in the face of all this, we are told the African 
has been degraded by American slavery.' 

" These facts look too atrocious. Did they not come from 
such high authority, I could not venture to pen them in this 
article." 

Jinother icitness on the same subjects. 
"The social condition of the people of Africa is as de- 
pressed as their industry and their science. But what else 
could be looked for where fetichism, idolatry, and the most 
revolting superstition, are prevalent? Polygamy may be 
said to be diffused all over Africa; and, though forbidden 
in Abyssinia, the marriage tie is there sosllgln as hardly to 
have any sensible influence ; and morals are in this respect 
in a state of almost total dissolution. That cannibalism 
formerly existed to a frightful extent in many parts of Af- 
rica cannot he doubted, and though it has greatly declined, 
partly because of the introduction of Mohammedanism, and 
partly — and principally, perhaps — because of the ready and 
advantageous markets that have long been opened in the 
West Indies and America for the slaves or captives taken 
In war, there seems to be no doubt that it still exists among 
certain tribes. Among some considerable nations the expo- 
sure of children, and the slaughter of those that are de- 
formed or maimed, is not tolerated merely, but enforced. 
In some parts human blood is reported to be mixed up with 
the lime or mortar used in the construction of temples. And 
it is said to be usual, among the greater number of the na- 
tions on the coast of Guinea, for rich individuals to immo- 
late human victims once in their, lives to the manes of their 
fathers. It is unnecessary to enter into any examination 
whether the varieties of the human race in Africa originally 
sprang from different sources. The inevitable conclusion 
is, that every variety ol the negro type, which comprises 
the inhabitants of almost all Central Africa, is indicative of 
mental inferiority, and that ferocity and stupidity are the 
characteristics of those tribes in which the peculiar negro 
features are found most developed. We believe that this 
is a perfectly correct statement; and we do not know that 
anything that can be said could show more conclusively 
the radical inferiority of the great bulk of the African peo- 
ple. But we do not form our opinion as to their inferiority 
on their configuration and appearance, but on the fact that 
while numberless European and Asiatic nations have at- 
tained to a high state of civilization, they continue, with few 
exceptions, in nearly primeval barbarism, it is vain to pre- 
tend that this is the result of the unfavorable circumstances 
under Which they have been placed. An intelligent, enter- 
prising people contend against unfavorable circumstances, 
and make them become favorable; But the Africans, with 
the questionable exception of the ancient inhabitants of the 
valley of the Nile, have never discovered any considerable 
degree of enterprise or invention, or any wish to distinguish 
themselves either in aits or arm--. From the remotest an- 
tiquity down to the present time they have been hewers of 
wood and drawers of water lor others, and have made little 
or no progress; and the only legitimate inference seems' to 
be that they are incapable of making it; that civilization 
will not spring up spontaneously aiming them, and that 
if ever itgrows up, it must be introduced from abroad, and 
fostered and matured under foreign auspices.'- — Mc -Cut- 
loch's article on Africa. 

Slavery almost universal in Africa. 

" Perhaps it would bespeaking within compass to say that 
four fifths of the whole population, not only in this coun- 
try, but every other hereabouts, are slaves. Many of them 
are permitted to roam at large, provided they attend upon 
their masters when called upon. These procure their own 
subsistence, and devote part of their time to the service of 
their owners; others reside in the houses of their masters 
as domestic servants, and are likewise expected to eon- 
tribute to their own support.' 1 — Journal of an expedition to 
explore the course and termination of the Niger, it/ Richard 
and John Lander, vol. 1, p. 377. 

Testimony of Prichard, the leading ethnological 
writer of England. 

" Those who'inquire dispassionately into the subject will 
probably come to the conclusion that, instead of being in- 
jured, tiie slaves have gained by being carried from the Old 
to the New World. Speaking Generally, the negroes are in 
the lowest state of abasement, possessing merely the rudi- 
ments of the most indspensable arts ; a prey to the vilest 
superstition and tyranny, without any tincture of learning, 
and with little or no regard for the future. The circum- 
stances under which they are placed in their native land 
may, perhaps, account for the low state in which we find 



therm ; but, however explained, the genuine negroes of Af- 
rica are admitted, by those least inclined to depreciate them, 
to be, for the most part, ' either ferocious savages, or stupid, 
sensual, and indolent.'" — Prichard's History of Man, vol. 
2, p. 338, third ed. 

British confessions in regard to the West India Freed 
Negroes. 

Here is a frank and full confession, of the Lon- 
don Times, of the working of the West India free 
negroes: 

" It observes, in a recent article, that ' floods of pathetic 
eloquence and long years of parliamentary struggling taught 
the English people to imagine that the world was made for 
Sambo.' The Times has arrived at the following conclu- 
sion : 

" ' TAe negro is a lazy animal, without any foresight ; and 
therefore requiring to be led and compelled. He is decidedly 
inferior, very little raised above a mere animal. He is void 
of self-reliance, and is the creature ef circumstances ; scarcely 
fitted to take care of himself; has no care for to-morrow ; 
has no desire for property strong enough to induce him io 
labor; lives from hand to mouth. In Jamaica, emancipa- 
tion has thrown enormous tracts of land out of cultivation, 
and on these the negro squats, getting all that he wants 
with very little trouble, and sinking, in the most abso- 
lute FASHION, BACK TO TIIE SAVAGE STATE.' " 

And again, the same paper says: 

"There is no blinking the truth. Years of bitter expe- 
rience; years of hope deferred; of self-devotion unrequited ; 
of poverty; of humiliation ; of prayers unanswered; of suf- 
ferings derided ; of insults unre'sented; of contumely pa- 
tiently endured, have convinced us of the truth. It must 
be spoken out loudly and energetically despite the wild 
moc kings of ' howling cant.' The freed West India slave 
will not till the soil for wages ; the free son of the ex-slave 
is as obstinate as his sire', lie will not cultivate lands 
which he has not bought for his own. Yams, mangoes, 
and plaintains— these satisfy his wants; he cares not for 
yours. Cotton, sugar, and coffee and tobacco— he cares but 
little for them. And what matters it to him that the Eng- 
lishman has sunk his thousands and tens of thousands on 
mills, machinery, and plants, which now totter on the lan- 
guishing estate that for years has only returned beggary and 
debt. He eats bis yams, mid snicsers at ' Huckra.' 

'• We know not "why this should be, but it is so. The 
negro has been bought with a price — the price of English 
taxation and English toil. He has been redeemed from 
bondage by the sweat and travail of some millions of hard- 
working Englishmen. Twenty million pounds sterling — 
.*luo.uou,uOu— have been distilled from the brains and mus- 
cles of the free English laborer, of every degree, to fashion 
the West India negro into a 'free and independent laborer.' 
' Free and independent' enough he has become, God knows ; 
but laborer he is not ; and, so far as We can see, never will 
be. He will sing hymns and quote texts ; but honest, steady 
industry he not (inly detests, but despises. We wish to 
Heaven that some people in England — neither Government 
people, nor parsons, norelergymcn, but some just-minded, 
honest hearted, and clear-sighted men— would go out to 
some of the islands, (say Jamaica, Dominica, or Antigua,) 
not for a month or three months, but for a year— would 
watch the precious protege of English philanthropy, the 
freed negro, in his daily habits: would watch him as he lazily 
plants his little squatting ; would see him as he proudly re- 
jects agricultural or domestic services, or accepts it only at 
wages ludicrously disproportionate to the value of his work. 
We wish, too, I hey would watch him while, with a hide 
thicker than that of a hippopotamus, and a body to which 
fervid heat is a comfort rather than an annoyance, he dron- 
ingly lounges over the prescribed task on which the intrepid 
Englishman, uninured to the burning sun, consumes his 
impatient energy and too often sacrifices his lite. We wish 
they would go out and view the negro in all the blazonry 
of his idleness, his pride, his ingratitude, contemptuously 
sneering at the industry of that race which made him free, 
and then come home and teach the memorable lesson oi 
their experience to the fanatics who have perverted him 
into what he is." — London Times. 

Extract from an article in the Boston Courier. 

"Condition or the Fugitive Slaves in Canada." 
* * ± u The Colchester settlement in Amberstburg 
was the first established. The laud was purchased by some 
Quakers for the purpose of supporting thereon fugitive 
slaves. It toots soon discovered that the blacks preferred char- 
ily to labor, and. the settlement lias now gone to pieces. In 



15 



the townships of Chatham and Dawn there are dense set- 
tlements of blacks. The most important settlement is at 
Buxton, town-hip of Raleigh, Kent county. It was formed 
Under the patronage of the Elgin Association, an incor- 
porated body, formed in opposition to the wishes of the 
people. The Rev. William King, a Presbyterian minister, 
originally from the north of Ireand, was placed at the head 
o'f the colored colony. He was once a resident of Louis- 
iana, where he was the owner of fifteen slaves, which he 
took with him to Canada in 1819. The whites, to a con- 
siderable extent, withdrew. The blacks generally are lazy, 
shiftless, and improvident, there not being more thun three or 
four families of a different character out of the otic hundred 
and fifty which comprise the settlement. They suffer terribly 

in winter for want of clothing. The Dresden settlement, in 

the township of Dawn, is the next in importance. It was 
planned on the principle of the Socialists, and has proved 
a total failure. A few years since Chatham was a bricht 
arid prosperous village ; but now more than a quarter of its 

?Opulation are negroes, and three fourt lis of them arc worth- 
ess idlers and petty thieves. There are two colored schools 
m the place, and one of them is presided over by a mulatto 
teacher, who is appropriately named TVhimicr. One of the 
constables is a colored man. The town of Raleigh sends 
a colored man named Brown to its municipal council. He 
was bom at Harper's Ferry. The < Round O Settlement,' 
in the township of Shrewsbury, is about fifteen miles from 
Chatham. The Government owns the lands, and the ne- 
groes lease it at a small rent in lots. There are two hun- 
dred negroes on the settlement, who are miserable and des- 
titute. There are smaller settlements at New Canaan and 
Baptist Creek, which are also in a miserable condition. At 
Windsor, opposite Detroit, the whites are withdrawing on 
account of the increase of the blacks — fugitive and free. It 
was the condition and character of the blacks at this place 
which led Colonel Prince to make his speech against negro 
colonization in Canada, in the Canadian Council. The set- 
tlements made under a mixed organization of American 
and Canadian Abolitionists, and styled the Refuge Home 
Society, have been so unsuccessful that only one negro in 
tezen years has been able to take up a deed of his lot." 

Negroes in the free States. 
The following extract, from the Xenia (Ohio) 
News, (a Republican paper,) will give some idea 



of the condition of negroes in the free States, and 
their injurious effect upon society: 

" There are about one hundred negroes in Greene county 
who are always out of employment. A part of these are those 
who have lately been freed by their masters, ami furnished 

with a bonus, on which they are now gentleman!} loafing. 

" Our jail is continually tilled with negroes committed for 
petty offenses, such as affrays, petty larceny, drunkenness, 
assault and battery, for whose prosecution and imprison- 
ment the town of Xenia has to pay about five hundred dol- 
lars per annum. And to such persons going to jail is rather 
a pleasure than a disgrace. They are better fed and lodged 
then than when vagabondizing round our streets. 

" We have seen negro prostitutes flaunting down Main 
street, three or four abreast, sweeping all before them In- 
discriminately. We have seen ladies of respectability run- 
ning upon the cellar doors, and even into the gutters, to avoid 
being ran over by these impudent hussies, ll was only the 

other evening that we saw a lady completely turned around 

by some black girls, who never deviated from their path in 
the middle of the sidewalk. Andourown cheek bas burned 
with indignation, at the lecherous smile of invitation which 

has been flung Into our faces by these swarthy demoiselles. 
other gentlemen have complained of the insulting boldness 
of their address. 

" But we are sickened with the recital. It is a disagree- 
able task to lance the sore which has long been gathering 
unheeded; and it is equally so to probe this evil, which un- 
awares is growing in our midst. As we have in a former 
number already said, we feel no prejudice again-t the black 

j man on account of color, or for mere degradation ; but, at 

, the same time we are tinwilling that we should be morally 
infected by contact with an inferior race, the result of which 

I contact is in no icay beneficial to the black, and highly injur 

, rious to the white." 

P. 
"A Frr.t, Gorge of Nigger. — At the late eorpoi ate elec- 
tion in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Edward M. Robinson, 
Esq., a gentleman worth his millions, was elected a mem- 
ber of the City Council from the fourth ward ; but not liking 
the way his fellow-laborers worked, resigned his seat, and 
Iherc was an election to fill the vacancy. Morrill Robin- 
son, Esq., a white lawyer, was one of the candidates, and 
Thomas Bayne, a black man, was the other. — Cincinnati 
Enquirer. 



Price of tliis speech : In sixteen pages, one dollar per hundred ; in eight pages, (appendix 
omitted,) fifty vents ; in German, one dollar. Orders can be sent to " National Democratic 
Campaign Committee, Washington, D. C." 



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